Salt Lake City Tribune gives up
April 16, 2009 | Utah, federal legislation, industry, local issues, regulation | Comments (0)At least they’ve given up on browbeating the city council to regulate local payday lenders. From today’s editoral:
Some members of the City Council say they can’t do more to protect people from predatory lenders because they don’t have the necessary legal authority. Only the Legislature does. They’re right about that.
But the Legislature is reluctant to create usury laws that would limit financial institutions, including banks, from charging predatory interest. Utah could impose a maximum interest rate, tied to the prime or federal funds rate, but that would limit banks in this state who compete in a national market.
So the real solution lies in Congress. Given the current outrage over subprime mortgages, federal bailouts and lax regulation, now might be the time.
What the heck do payday loans have to do with subprime mortgages and federal bailouts of banks? If anything, the fact that there’s greater need for short-term credit ought to lead to the conclusion that this is not a good time to tighten a $70+ billion credit market. The Tribune editorial board is misguided.
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